The Impact Of Free Nutritious Meals On Elementary School Students' Learning Concentration

Abstract

The Free Nutritious Meal Program (MBG) is one of the national policies that aims to support the fulfillment of nutrition for school-age children and create more conducive learning conditions. The fulfillment of good nutritional needs is expected to help increase students' learning readiness, including their ability to concentrate during the learning process. This article aims to systematically review various studies in Indonesia that discuss the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meal Program and its implications for the learning concentration of elementary school students. The method used is a literature review by examining relevant Indonesian journal articles, both those that discuss the impact of MBG on concentration, learning motivation, student attendance, and implementation challenges in schools. The data source is obtained from national journals that can be accessed openly through the official website of the publisher. The results of the study showed that most studies reported a tendency to increase students' concentration and motivation to learn after the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meal Program. Students are described as more prepared to follow learning, more focused, and have better participation in class. However, the effectiveness of the program is greatly influenced by the quality of implementation, such as the variety and content of the food menu, the accuracy of distribution, and the existence of a continuous monitoring system. This study concludes that the Free Nutritious Meal Program has great potential in supporting the learning concentration of elementary school students. However, most of the research is still descriptive so the cause-and-effect relationship cannot be firmly confirmed. Therefore, further research with a more rigorous design is needed to strengthen the empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of MBG programs on learning concentration.